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Sunday, 23 September 2018

Second home owners will be hit by swingeing new taxes of more than £3,000 per property under Labour, Jeremy Corbyn vows

Labour Party has outlined plans to raise £560million in taxes on second homes

Holiday homes would be hit by an average additional tax bill of £3,200 a year

Corbyn said the money would be used to build new affordable home for people

Owners of second homes face swingeing new taxes of more than £3,000 per property under plans unveiled by Jeremy Corbyn today.

The Labour leader said his party would effectively double council tax on holiday homes and other additional properties.

The policy would raise £560million to be ploughed into affordable homes, Mr Corbyn said.

Under the plan, the sum will be based on the value of the property and equivalent to double the current rate of council tax.

Owners of second homes face swingeing new taxes of more than £3,000 per property underplans unveiled by Jeremy Corbyn (pictured at Labour conference today)

Mr Corbyn cited St Ives in Cornwall as an area worried about the rise of second homes as he unveiled a £560million tax grab

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the BBC's Andrew Marr there were some circumstances where it was understandable people had a second property as he defended the crack down.

He said: 'People do have second homes, particularly business-related second homes in central London.

'Our proposal is that we would increase the tax on them in order to give money to be spent on new housing across the whole country.'Citing a local referendum in St Ives on restricting second home, Mr Corbyn added: 'I can see that in rural areas there is a tourist need for some, but the problem is that a village made up of largely second homes becomes a dead village in the winter and you then lose all the services and facilities that you need.

'And so I just think that should be concentrating on the housing needs of those that are living in terribly overcrowded conditions and children under-achieving in school because of the overcrowding.'

Unveiling the detail of the new taxes, Shadow housing secretary John Healey said: 'Britain's rapidly rising homelessness shames us all.

Unveiling the detail of the new taxes, Shadow housing secretary John Healey said: 'Britain's rapidly rising homelessness shames us all.

'It is unforgivable that under the Tories, the number of children stuck growing up in hostels and B&Bs has skyrocketed.

'Over the last eight years, the Government has turned its back on the scandal of poor housing and homelessness. A housing market that works for the many needs government action to ensure everyone has a place to call home.

'As part of the next Labour government's plan to rebuild Britain, we will introduce a levy on second homes used as holiday homes to help homeless families. Labour will act to put a brake on the growing gap between Britain's housing 'haves' and 'have-nots'.'

The money raised from the new levy would be earmarked for councils across the country to help homeless families with children living in temporary accommodation.

Labour highlighted figures showing that there are over 120,000 children homeless in this sort of emergency housing - up two thirds since 2010.

Up to 174,000 properties could be subject to the tax, with many in popular tourist destinations like Cornwall, North Norfolk and South Lakeland as well as urban areas such as Kensington and Chelsea in west London.